Fly Fishing for the Apache Trout in Arizona!! In this video we struggle to find an Apache trout and then end up running into a guy who totally changed our trip in Arizona! We ended up finding the best trout stream in the state (probably sarcasm, but it felt like it after how badly we struggled).
Where do I even begin on the Apache trout? I guess I could just tell you that this was the most difficult native trout I’ve ever tried to catch. It’s impossible for me to predict weather conditions when I plan these trips, but a raging wildfire in the Apache trout’s native range wasn’t on my list of things to worry about. These fish are native to a small section of the white mountains in Arizona, more specifically the headwaters of the black, white, and little Colorado river. They recently made headlines in the conservation world when they were delisted from the endangered species list… but we found out that didn’t mean they’d be easy to catch. In fact if it weren't for the Arizona game and fish department we'd still have caught almost nothing.
So as you can tell this day was in the dumpster. After 5 hours of fishing we had 0 fish and honestly we hadn’t even really spooked one. So, with our heads held low, we decided to run back to the creek we had at least seen Apache Trout at the day prior to have at least some sort of success.
Now you may be thinking surely the rest of this video doesn’t involve you catching 10 brook trout for every 1 Apache Trout… and you’re right. But that’s only because of one very helpful guy we met while fishing that worked for the Arizona game and fish department. Let’s just call him our savior, because he totally changed the trajectory of our day and transformed our view of the Apache Trout. For starters, the brook trout you watched us catch by the dozens in the last video were stocked by Arizona game and fish, and were all male brook trout with Y Y chromosomes that can’t reproduce. The idea was to overload the system with the brook trout that can’t reproduce so that the wild brook trout that already live there get wiped out. And the two creeks we had fished earlier that day? Both had Apache, but we needed to do a bit more hiking to find them. Those creek do have some temperature issues, which is partially why the brook trout existed in the meadow we were fishing to begin with. Then he asked us if we were down for an adventure, which of course we were. And he told us about a creek that he told us, and I quote, the Apache Trout probably have never seen a hook. The only caveat to what seemed to be the perfect scenario was that the hike was hellacious, but that didn’t deter us much. All we really needed to hear was about some Apache Trout that didn’t get fished for and we were already halfway down the road. Now with nothing to go off of other than some verbal directions, this is where troutroutes came in handy. I had already downloaded the maps for the area, and in a few short minutes I had found the creek he had mentioned, knew which way I had to drive to get there, and even identified how we were going to access the creek. So, within an hour or two, we were hiking into the wilderness in an attempt to find the fish that we had traveled halfway across the country for… and we had no clue what we were in for.
After staring down into a hole and seeing 30 Apache Trout swimming around living their best lives I knew we had found a legendary and very special creek. Then it was Micah’s turn, so he took the next few holes so he could catch as many as he wanted before we hiked out.
After Micah caught a handful of nice Apache Trout we realized if we didn’t leave soon we’d be hiking out in the dark. And with the amount of bear and mountain lion tracks we figure that wasn’t the best idea. So we started back up the trail, but when I saw a half dozen Apache Trout sitting behind a log jam I decided it would be a fun opportunity to see if I could dap the fly on the surface and make the trout jump for it… which ended up being really cool.
I’ll be honest with you, nothing funny happened on the way out. And by the time we got to the car we were so dead tired I didn’t even shoot a proper outro. But overall we had a blast fishing for the Apache trout on our second day. We learned a ton from he Arizona game and fish biologist, most of which I couldn’t fit into this video. So shouts out to him for totally changing our apache trip and making our experience in Arizona second to none. It’s not often you get to make one of the rarest trout in the world jump out of the water for your fly. Up next on the western native trout challenge is the famed Gila trout, and this one is every bit as cool as the Apache, so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the next videos. I’ll catch you on the next one! #fishing #troutfishing #trout #outdoors #nature #flyfishing #hiking #nature #sports #apache #arizona
